Bank of England discovers False GDP

This ‘official discovery’ (you heard it on this blog first in early 2013) comes too late to make austerity unnecessary, but just in time to improve the feelgood factor for the Scotland referendum. “This isn’t based on any private information” says Weale. No, just on ONS data that wasn’t supposed to be released until after the Scotland vote.

BOE Weale: GDP Changes Hint Productivity Not Bad As Thought

By William Wilkes and Les Commons

LONDON (MNI) – Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee member Martin Weale said Wednesday that changes to the way UK GDP data are calculated will show that the country’s recent productivity performance has not been as weak as thought.

Policymakers are troubled by the UK’s exceptionally weak productivity rates. Official data released in February showed output per hour in the UK was 21 percentage points below the G7 average. But recent changes to how GDP is calculated show the economy was 4% larger in 2012 than thought.

Weale says these new data, due for release on September 30, will likely show productivity growth was better than has been reported.

“I think it is likely that they will show, and this isn’t based on any private information, that the productivity story has still been bad but not quite as bad as we had thought,” he told the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee.